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U14s praised for being ‘brave all the time’
August 27, 2024
Head coach of the Jamaica team, Andrew Peart, has applauded his players for a "brave" performance throughout the tournament, having claimed the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Boys' Under-14 Challenge Series title.
Jamaica capped an unbeaten campaign with a 7-1 drubbing of French Guiana in the final at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday night.
The team completed six wins from as many games, scoring 25 goals and only conceding twice.
"For the overall team performance, I must commend the players' ability to display on the field the ideas that we had brought across to them in how we want them to play," Peart stated.
"I think it was really good of them to actually be brave all the time and try to play a certain way. From that aspect, we're very pleased and, of course, being champions is rewarding in its own right."
'True Jamaican qualities'
In the semifinals against Puerto Rico and final against French Guiana, Jamaica had conceded first in both games, yet were able to pull off 3-1 and 7-1 comeback wins, respectively.
Peart said he was not concerned about trailing in both knockout games as he was confident the team would get the result at the end.
"In those moments when we had gone behind, the state of the game was actually either balanced or we were dominating. We were pretty confident in our ability to say we can still play and get ourselves restored on the scoresheet," he said.
"I think also the boys displayed some true Jamaican qualities in terms of resilience. Jamaican people on a whole are resilient and they embodied that in the games, saying we were down but we're not out. It was a really good display from them."
Peart said the next step will be for these players to matriculate into older age groups as they continue their development.
He is confident these players can form the core of Jamaica's national football programme for years to come.
"What we now look forward to is for the entire team to mature and increase their output in terms of technical and tactical quality as they move forward into the under-15 and the years to come."
